Dan McCarney donned a surgical mask and gown and made an uneasy entrance into the room at the University of Iowa Hospital.

It was early 1999, and in Iowa City, the buzz still centered on the new kid in town, and whether Kirk Ferentz could ever adequately replace the venerable Hayden Fry as Iowa's football coach.

Aztecs spring football practice

San Diego State will open its 15-day spring practice Tuesday at the SDSU practice facility. All sessions will be held at SDSU except for the Red and Black Game April 15, which will be at Torrey Pines High School. The schedule:

Tuesday: 3 p.m. (no contact)

Wednesday: 3 p.m. (no contact)

Friday: 3 p.m. (full pads)

Saturday: 1:30 p.m. (scrimmage)

March 28: 3 p.m. (full pads)

March 29: 3 p.m. (full pads)

March 31: 3 p.m. (full pads)

April 1: 11 a.m. (scrimmage)

April 4: 3 p.m. (full pads)

April 5: 3 p.m. (full pads)

April 7: 3 p.m. (helmets)

April 8: 1 p.m. (scrimmage)

April 11: 3 p.m. (full pads)

April 13: 3 p.m. (full pads)

April 15: 10 a.m. (Red and Black Game)

Note: Only Red and Black Game April 15 is open to general public. All other practices are closed, except for March 29 (open to students with ID) and April 1 (open to faculty and staff with ID).

The man who might have, Bob Elliott, was lying in a hospital bed. Dan McCarney's former teammate and roommate at Iowa, who had spent 12 years as an assistant on Fry's staff, was suffering from polycythemia vera, a cancer condition in which bone marrow becomes hyperactive. Elliott, who became the defensive coordinator at San Diego State in December, was waiting for a bone marrow transplant.

“He was so pumped up on steroids that I didn't even recognize him,” said McCarney, the head football coach at Iowa State. “He didn't even look like the same human being. This was someone I had known since the early '70s, as a player, a classmate, a Rhodes scholar, a coach. And here he was on the doorstep of something very dire. I felt helpless. All I could do was show him as much support as I could.”

The previous summer, as the 23rd edition of the Conard family reunion drew to a close, Elliott, in addition to the don't-forget-to-writes and call-when-you-cans, made one more request – a plea for help. Both of his siblings had been ruled out as potential donors, as had all but one of his cousins, Greg Underwood. Elliott and Underwood's mothers are sisters.

“Bobby had asked if everyone would check to see if they might be a match after they got back home,” said Underwood, a resident of Chattanooga who at 59 is seven years Elliott's senior and possesses a substantial fondness for Tennessee football. “As it turned out, I had recently gone to give blood and asked to be put on the bone marrow registry.

“I'm not sure how you explain those kinds of things. Obviously, God had a hand in it and put me in a position to help. It was something that was just destined to happen. The only thing I cautioned Bobby about (the transplant) was that he might suddenly find himself developing an affinity for Budweiser.”

He certainly has an affinity for persevering. The son of Chalmers “Bump” Elliott, an All-American halfback at Michigan who would go on to coach the Wolverines from 1959-68 before becoming Iowa's athletic director, Bob had spent the entire 1998 season as Iowa's assistant head coach while undergoing chemotherapy on an almost daily basis.

With the exception of a brief setback in 2001, his cancer has been in remission since receiving the transplant in April 1999.

Yet in a world where life is neither necessarily easy nor necessarily fair, Elliott could provide testimony on both fronts. Had he not become ill, there are those who insist that the former Iowa defensive back would have been a lock to succeed Fry as the Hawkeyes' head coach.

Among those holding such an opinion is SDSU head coach Chuck Long, who was recommended to Fry by Elliott to become the Hawkeyes' secondary coach in 1995. Long had played for Fry at Iowa and was looking for an entry point into the coaching ranks.

“Bob was in line to get the job and would have gotten it, but then he got sick,” Long said. “My heart just broke for him. We all had a feeling that Hayden was going to retire, and there is no question that Bob Elliott is head-coaching material.

“But Bob, to his credit, knowing the scope of the job and the commitment that came with it, took himself out of the running. He was just too sick. The timing was just horrible and I felt horrible about it.”

Elliott, however, who holds a degree in history, has no desire to live in the past.

“I don't dwell on it,” he said. “It might have been a possibility, but timing is a cruel instrument sometimes. I think I might have been a candidate, but nothing was ever promised to me. I was in my mid-40s, prime time so to speak, but sometimes that's what happens. I felt at the time that I was ready to be a head coach, but God had another plan.”

After spending a year in administration at Iowa following his bone marrow transplant, Elliott was hired by McCarney at Iowa State to serve as associate head coach and to oversee the secondary and special teams. He spent two years with the Cyclones before being lured to Kansas State by Bill Snyder, who had become the Wildcats' head coach after serving as Iowa's offensive coordinator under Fry.

McCarney, who had coached with Elliott at Iowa and against him as head coach at Iowa State, once again was faced with matching wits against his old roommate in the North Division of the Big 12 Conference.

“Some coaches say they enjoy scenarios like that, but I'm not one of them,” McCarney said. “Bob Elliott is too good of a person and too close of a friend. If I had a preference, I would just as soon not do it.”

During Elliott's four-year tenure (2002-05) as defensive coordinator at Kansas State, there were more than a few opponents who shared the same sentiment. The Wildcats' lone conference title came in 2003, a season in which Kansas State drubbed No. 1-ranked Oklahoma 35-7 in the Big 12 Championship game.

When Long was tabbed to succeed Tom Craft at SDSU in December, the first person he contacted about joining his staff was Elliott, who was not retained by Kansas State after Snyder opted to retire last November. Elliott will also serve as the Aztecs' assistant head coach.

“I know what kind of teacher he is and I know what he's done for me,” said Long, who was in his second season as Oklahoma's offensive coordinator when the Sooners were taken to the woodshed by Kansas State in '03. “I've thought for years that if I ever had a chance to become a head coach, and I had a chance to hire Bob Elliott, I was definitely going to give it a try.”

And while Elliott has not abandoned his desire of becoming a head coach, he also is fascinated by the prospect of hoisting a long-moribund football program out of the muck.

“My first impression is that I think (the previous coaching staff) did a good job of recruiting good people,” said Elliott, who will get the first true look at his charges when SDSU opens spring practice on Tuesday. “I don't see any problems with attitude or selfishness with this team. There are going to be flaws with every program, but we'll address them and try to be the best we can be. I'm eager to get started. We're undefeated.”

With a defensive coordinator who is undeterred.

“You're not going to find a better coach,” McCarney said of Elliott. “He's intelligent, he's got integrity and he still has that burning desire to teach and to win. There's not a phony bone in his body. He's going to go to work his tail off every day. Every program that has ever had him on its staff has become a better program, and I have no doubt that the same thing is going to happen at San Diego State.”